Retail Trickery
I'm the ultimate in suspicious customers. I question everything and believe nothing. And I don't think it's a bad way to be.
The latest bit of retail trickery I'm noticing is the huge number of shops being closed right across the UK. I imagine this is going on all over the western world. The reason given is:
the customers prefer to shop online
That all too often is just a damn lie. It's an extension of the supermarket con trick we all fell for 50 years ago. At that time, we, the customers, got handed the bulk of the work to do when we did our shopping: we collect the trolley, trundle it round the aisles (where everything is so laid out that we have to put in the maximum of effort to get what we want: milk, eggs and butter? They are in 3 different parts of the shop. The layout of the shop also changes regularly just to keep us on our toes. And the daily necessities are as far from the entrance and the checkouts as possible). Then we take the trolley to the checkout, manhandle the goods onto a conveyor belt, bag it or put it back in the trolley, pay and leave.
We can use a self-service checkout but I beg you not to do that: you're taking away somebody's job if you do.
The latest trick is for shops not to sell a full range of stock in their shops at all. M&S, Asda, Tesco, Debenham's - all of them have different stock online and in their stores. Some of these shops have removed certain clothes sizes and shoes sizes from their stores. I saw last week that New Look stock 'larger' sizes (anything over a 16 for women, I'll bet) but only online. I've never bought anything from New Look and, having watched my slim (size 10-12) sister struggle to fit into a size 14 there, I don't think I'll bother trying. I once ordered 3 tops from a well-known store. They were all labelled as being the same size. Two were too small and one was too big. Then there were the shoes I ordered online: I ordered dark brown. I got orange. Of course, I was able to send the stuff back. But again, it was me that did the work: sending an email explaining what I was doing, filling in forms to say what I was doing and why, parcelling the stuff up and taking it to a shop quite some distance from home to have it returned. And, of course, I had to watch my bank account to make sure the money came back.
This isn't about what the customers want. What these closures are about is labour-saving. The staff are always the highest cost for any shop.
And think a wee bit more: if your local shopping centre loses enough retail outlets, there may not be enough 'footfall' to keep the wee cafe, the independent bookshop, the butcher, the dry cleaner, the gift shop, the fish shop or the card shop going. And our town centres and shopping precincts will become more and more the haunt of wee guys on bikes and the occasional Starbucks.
The latest bit of retail trickery I'm noticing is the huge number of shops being closed right across the UK. I imagine this is going on all over the western world. The reason given is:
the customers prefer to shop online
That all too often is just a damn lie. It's an extension of the supermarket con trick we all fell for 50 years ago. At that time, we, the customers, got handed the bulk of the work to do when we did our shopping: we collect the trolley, trundle it round the aisles (where everything is so laid out that we have to put in the maximum of effort to get what we want: milk, eggs and butter? They are in 3 different parts of the shop. The layout of the shop also changes regularly just to keep us on our toes. And the daily necessities are as far from the entrance and the checkouts as possible). Then we take the trolley to the checkout, manhandle the goods onto a conveyor belt, bag it or put it back in the trolley, pay and leave.
We can use a self-service checkout but I beg you not to do that: you're taking away somebody's job if you do.
The latest trick is for shops not to sell a full range of stock in their shops at all. M&S, Asda, Tesco, Debenham's - all of them have different stock online and in their stores. Some of these shops have removed certain clothes sizes and shoes sizes from their stores. I saw last week that New Look stock 'larger' sizes (anything over a 16 for women, I'll bet) but only online. I've never bought anything from New Look and, having watched my slim (size 10-12) sister struggle to fit into a size 14 there, I don't think I'll bother trying. I once ordered 3 tops from a well-known store. They were all labelled as being the same size. Two were too small and one was too big. Then there were the shoes I ordered online: I ordered dark brown. I got orange. Of course, I was able to send the stuff back. But again, it was me that did the work: sending an email explaining what I was doing, filling in forms to say what I was doing and why, parcelling the stuff up and taking it to a shop quite some distance from home to have it returned. And, of course, I had to watch my bank account to make sure the money came back.
This isn't about what the customers want. What these closures are about is labour-saving. The staff are always the highest cost for any shop.
And think a wee bit more: if your local shopping centre loses enough retail outlets, there may not be enough 'footfall' to keep the wee cafe, the independent bookshop, the butcher, the dry cleaner, the gift shop, the fish shop or the card shop going. And our town centres and shopping precincts will become more and more the haunt of wee guys on bikes and the occasional Starbucks.
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